Big Sky was always a spotty series, the first half of season 1 was great, the second half felt like a new season. Season 2 was a chore, but when it was awesome it was awesome. Same is basically the same for the third and final season. Jensen Ackles is a welcome cast member, and carries the series,
Dream Scenario is a perfect Nic Cage role. He is embracing his madness, and in this film his character is aswell. It feels like a missing Charlie Kaufman script, and with Cage it gave me Adaptation vibes. It stars off strong and ends strong but kind of lags in the middle. I wish it went for broke with the insanity of the premise but it is a solid film with great performances.
Emerald Fennell gave us a tough watch wrapped in candy colors in 2020 with Promising Young Woman. Exploitation disguised as art house. Now she is at is again and with an equally as creepy and unsettling film, Saltburn. This is not what i expected, i kept thinking the family would be the antagonists but i loved how methodical this was. It's stylish as fuck and Barry Keoghan as usual is a creepy lil bastard and totally steals the show here.
It is hard to write a review for Strange New Worlds. I was watching it weekly but with my mom, she passed away a few days after the finale and we were not able to watch, so i kept putting it off. Fantastic season, fantastic finale. This is a fun episodic series that has great characters and moments. The finale was right out of Alien and they nailed it. Now to wait til 2025 for the third season.
Another season of Creepshow has come and gone, more so than most seasons this was a mixed bag....okay most are mixed bags, this was more miss than hit though. Really only 2 segments i enjoyed, the vampire family and the George Romero segment, but both of thouse fell apart aswell. Fun show overall but it might be time to put it to rest. Give us one more as a finale, or even just a special.
16 years ago Eagle Vs Shark was a film i loved seeing it the Dundee. I anticipated seeing Taika Waititi's next film but Boy underwhelmed me, as did What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. His take on Thor while the series' best was way too comedic....same with his follow up. Now JoJo Rabbit was the film i wanted. But could he do it again? Well Next Goal Wins doesn't seem to know if it wants to be taken serious, and if it is serious it plays out in a tired way, or if it wants to be comedic, which joke fall flat and Waititi's narration takes you out every time. If i want to watch a struggling football team i will watch Ted Lasso, this has the misfortune of coming out the same year as their final season and while the plots are different all this did was make me appreciate Lasso that much more.
Lockdown Tower is a perfect example of modern exploitation. From its Mist premise to the Snowpiercer battle lines, it cements characters in their areas and shows how truly fucked the world becomes. It would have been a perfect covid film with the isolation but honestly i feel it is more effective without having that afterthought.
Birth/Rebirth has some genuinely unnerving moments. It build great tension and has some solid acting, it is one of the better Shudder films period, i just honestly was bored by it. Give me Christmas Bloody Christmas anyday!
The Treasure of Foggy Mountain is dumb as fuck but it kept me laughing. It's from Please Don't Destroy, so if you don't watch SNL you might not know em, but they essentially took over the SNL Digital Shorts. If you like their absurd comedic styling than you'll dig this. It's not a tight film, but it is fun, and it honestly feels like a film i'd watch after school on Comedy Central.....comedy alone is tough to find in 2023, and this feels like it would play well with Rolling Kansas, Sex Drive, various road flicks like that. I feel it could find itself a cult audience over the next few years, and while it is not a stoner film by any stretch of the imagination it feels like it lends itself to being viewed on 420.
In 2011 i fell in love with Quentin Dupieux, that was a mistake. His films post Rubber were underwhelming, add Smoking Causes Coughing to that list. It was an intriguing trailer, that i soon forgot about and a great concept but i feel i felt the way about this that many did about Rubber. It's bonkers but it doesn't hit the nail at all for me. I preferred the self awareness of Rubber and atleast that is a film that people are intrigued by cause of the concept, this just feels post comic book.
Infinity Pool came out with alot of praise, i had no interest as i wasn't big on the previous Brandon Cronenberg films, but i kept being told to watch it discuss it. The S&M promotion made me a tad interested but i honestly was bored to tears with this. I didn't care for Anti Viral, but i didn't mind Possessor but it was highly forgettable, this here i feel falls in between the two.
Scott Pilgrim is my favorite comic series of all time, the movie was one of my favorite films of the 10s, the video game is a blast, there is alot to love about this property, and those that read the comic/manga obviously know it has the anime influence. So doing an anime series was a perfect match, i'm not even big on anime in general. The first episode takes some getting used to with the animeness but then you realize this is a whole new story and in doing so they are free to tell their own thing, in their own way and it works perfectly. It is meta as fuck, has new sides of characters, and a fresh take on the multiverse.
Thanksgiving is a film i have been waiting 16 years for, for a while it seemed as if it would never come true. When Grindhouse came out in 2007 it was my event of all events, but since then many films have tried doing the aesthetic, key word being tried. Most have failed, but now Eli Roth has given us his faux trailer in all its glory in the feature film. And it doesn't try to be grindhouse, it instead becomes a missing 80s slasher. A group of douches get killed off, and in fun & innovative ways. The humor doesn't derail anything, it is perfect dark humor and it also doesn't take itself too seriously, it knows exactly what it is. Eli pays homage to many slashers here including a maybe too on the nose reference to The Guest, regardless this film is the fun slasher that is needed right now.
The Marvels is a blast. The hate it is getting seems to be from "superhero fatigue" or from people that haven't watched the TV shows. And i get it, it's a chore to watch that shit, especially as bad as they have become, but this along with the rest of the MCU 2023 slate, has been fun across the board. This isn't the heavy journey that Guardians was, it's light & quick, the way comic flicks should be. Yes it has the MCU humor and it has the MCU flaws but unlike most in this saga, it doesn't act like it is higher art than it is. The leads have chemistry, through said chemistry is a cute connection and a story full of heart! Oh and that mid credit Singer......i mean stinger!
Totally Killer is a fun film, a flawed film, but fun all the same. I enjoyed stuff like The Final Girls and Happy Death Day alot more, but this is a fun send up of both horror and time travel. Unlikable characters become likable, social issues are tackled, it has some film smarts and has some pretty funny moments, but i found the moments i liked far & few between. Regardless i had a totally killer time watching this.
For myself, The Killer is David Fincher's best film since Zodiac. A character driven noir with dark humor and some shocking kills. On top of that this might be Michael Fassbender's best performance, with as subtle as this is! Plus The Smiths soundtrack is perfectly placed throughout.
Zombie Town, based on an RL Stine story, is the new film on Hulu starring Dan Akroyd and "Chevy Chase", yes Chase is in it, minor role, and i am sure he was a Pierce to everyone. This is a a film about zombie film fans facing off with zombies, but it feels as if no one involved has seen any zombie films.
The MCU has become a mess, especially on TV. She Hulk, Secret Invasion, and now Loki Season 2 were all HUGE misses. I had no idea what was happening in this season, and it felt unneeded, especially after the Multiveral 1 2 punch of No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness, so maybe atleast let this be a write off.....nope it continues at the end seemingly. Atleast unlike the other 2 shows i mentioned, this had atleast 1 redeeming episode.
I am not anti remake, and i don't feel all films are untouchable. White Men Can't Jump is far from untouchable.....but this was an unneeded remake. I get they wanted to be topical but it missed all the marks. Unfunny, no heart, poorly crafted. White Men Can't Jump, more like White Men Can't Produce a Good Film.
Bottoms a charming yet uneven film. It's fun & fast paced, but feels all over the place. The plot feels a bit dated, yet highly topical at the same time. The characters feel like cliches, but they are well developed. This is a conundrum of a film, and i admire that! By time it ends you just can't help but smile.
In 2018 Anna & The Apocalypse knocked me out, i adored it and have watched it atleast once a year since. It is a gem of horror & musical and is damn near perfect. John McPhail has now gone full horror with Dear David. This is a film that i was excited for just cause of him but it honestly felt like your average Shudder film, and most Shudder films feel like your average screener these days. If you want McPhail this Christmas, don't McPhail yourself and pass on the chance of watching Anna & the Apocalypse, a modern Christmas classic.
Cassandro is a film that gives many emotions, you go on a roller coaster of a journey and feel turbulence. As a major wrestling mark i wasn't aware of most of this but i love how it was handled and how the industry was portrayed. Great acting, tight script and an overall piece of cinema!
Martin Scorsese you have to admire, he is a brilliant filmmaker and i tend to agree with his views on alot of modern cinema. However modern cinema does not have to be 3.5 hours long and feel like there are plot holes because it was supposed to be 5 hours. It feels convoluted and messy even though it looks beautiful. The acting is great and this is an easier pill to swallow than The Irishman and Silence but it still falls on the lower end of my Scorsese films.
Hearing my favorite director John Carpenter would be directing again was music to my ear holes via my eye holes, so it was more poetry than music. Speaking of music Carpenter is quite the musician, he is also a avid gamer, so he got to game while on set. Set being his living room. He directed this from his couch, atleast the finale. I watched these episodes just for his.....and this was a chore. It was a lesser version of Unsolved Mysteries and the acting was terrible here. I don't want to say this is his worst effort....but this is his worst effort. Redeem yourself with a film! Or don't, your legacy is strong enough.
I love Bill Burr, but his humor isn't for everyone. He is leftist but unwoke, i love it, that should have translated perfectly into Old Dads, his feature film directorial debut, but alas it feels like your typical Gen X vs Millennial meme being substituted over Boomers vs Millennials, only with Gen X here feeling like boomers. The jokes are tired and the plot is thin, even with a great cast it feels empty.
I was super excited for Satanic Hispanics and sought out to see it in theatres, upon seeing it i was extremely let down. None of the plots make sense, the acting is wooden, the only bright spot is the final scene which is full of carnage.
When Evil Lurks might be the most effective film on Shudder this year. Visceral, tense, and gripping. It is actually kinda nice that Shudder has been so spotty this year that it makes stuff like this that much better. This one goes for the jugular, and breathes new life into the possession film.
The Puppetman on Shudder could have been an excellent slasher or quasi true crime esque film but instead we were littered with bland characters and the void was filled with zero tension. Poster for this is sweet but like many VHS covers back in the day, it does not deliver.
Dumb Money on paper felt too topical, but for an idea like this, strike while the iron is hot. While it is a well made film, i wasn't invested at all. I dg the director and cast quite a bit but it felt like a by the numbers bio pic and one that i generally didn't have much interest in. After seeing the film i am glad when this topic will be dead....i mean it already is.
The Holdovers might not just be Alexander Payne's best film but it also might just be the best film of the year. From the start it is instantly beautiful and feels like pure cinema at its finest. We meet flawed characters, flawed characters with layers, and as the film goes on we see these layers peeled back. It's honest, heartfelt and raw, all in a poetic way!
Gunther vs Tomasso Ciampa: IC title: Raw
Cody & Jey vs Judgment Day: WWE tag titles: Fastlane
Gunther vs Bronson Reed: IC Title: Raw
Take a despicable character, put her in a gas station with a shooter taking out targets. Spin it that the shooter is a right wing loon, abut make the audience feel we can relate to the twat cheater. I would have rather had a full on racist right winger as opposed to the alt right character we got, and an actual protagonist we can get behind rather than this trash human. Granted she grows a bit but she wasn't the character we needed and the villain needed to be more than a alt right cliff note. With that said the film is tense but all the shocks feel expected.
There is so good atmosphere and some tense moments but NightMare, the latest on Shudder, is another dud for them. I was thinking this could be a great one at one point but nothing happened, and when it did it fell flat. I feel i really wanted to dig it especially with it coming from Norway, but there was Norway of that happening.
